Blood Bank Donations

We first go through a screening process to make sure your pet is a suitable donor. That includes a general health exam by one of our internists, and then a series of blood tests. These are to assess general health as well as screen for any infectious disease that could be transmitted.  A pet can give blood every 8-12 weeks. These may be a combination of scheduled donations to provide samples to be banked or possibly on-call for emergency donations in the event of a blood shortage. All dogs and cats are sedated for blood donation.

We provide initial and follow up physical exams, initial blood screening and annual follow up lab work. If a donor is ever unlucky enough to need a transfusion themselves, we provide free blood products to them. We also provide a thank you local businesses gift card for each donation.  But most importantly, you and your pet get to help save a life.

There are a number of criteria that pets need to meet to be a donor.  For dogs, they can be blood type DEA 1.1 negative or positive, we need both.  They also need to be between 1-8 years old, over 50 pounds, healthy, tested negative for a list of potential infectious diseases, and ideally able to lie still for 10 minutes. Cats have similar requirements (between 1-8 years old and over 9 pounds) and need to be indoors.